I've played UO, EQ, and DAOC in the past. They've all had their moments, but I was really hoping that SWG would be leaps and bounds better than all of them. It is in some ways and isn't in others.

Imagine my surprise when I was chosen for beta 2! I eagerly read the forums and the newbie guides in the days before my CDs arrived. When they did, I opened up the package, installed both discs, and jumped right into the game. What can I say? I was disappointed. There was no player economy, only one planet, and a number of show-stopping bugs. I almost stopped playing after my first in-game experience, but I didn't turn my back on SWG completely.

Flash forward to a few months later. I can honestly say that I'm impressed by how much work the SWG devs have put into the game. By no means is it complete, but seeing the difference between this game and the game I played 4 months ago is mind boggling. I know that it's crunch time for them and that they can't continue developing at this pace forever, but if they show even half of this amount of devotion during release, I see a really good game in SWG's future.

Ray, you seem to be pretty open-minded about SWG. I have to be honest here: you probably won't have a blast the first time you play. The learning curve is admittedly pretty steep, the controls aren't too intuitive (be sure to go into the options and choose the FPS keymap), and it's hard to decide what exactly you should do to start off. If you stick with it, though, you'll find that the game is blissfully open-ended. Open-endedness isn't for everyone (some people loved Morrowind and others hated it), but I'm sure you'll be able to find something you love doing (heck, you can dance and sing for a living or mix drinks for money :)). Most importantly, though, be sure to socialize with people and get to know them by visiting cantinas, hospitals, theaters, etc. In fact, the cantinas in-game are like Cheers -- if you visit them enough, everyone knows you by name.

I think most people stop playing MMORPGs because they never find a really great bunch of people to stick with. It's a completely different experience when you're playing by yourself and when you find some people that you look forward to playing with. It's hard to explain, but it really makes a world of difference. I realized that when I played UO. At first, I played it in a "me vs. the world" mindset. I hated it. I even quit for about 3-4 months. When I gave the game a second chance, though, I just happened to run into a group of folks at a tavern. A few drinks and some checker games later, we exchanged contact information and planned in-game hunting trips together. A month or so later we pooled our money together, bought a tower, and shared the various rooms among ourselves. It was fun.

Now, is SWG perfect? No, no, no. Far from it. It's being released much sooner than it should be. A lot of work still needs to be done, but so far it's pretty promising. The deciding factors for me have been the positive attitudes of the devs and the rate at which they've been pushing out updates. And that's more than I can say about most MMORPGs.

Remember, a poorly implemented permanent death system (like Diablo 2's hardcore mode) isn't proof that permanent death doesn't work. If implemented properly, permanant death could work. And it could work well. Just as long as players aren't forced into a situation where they have to experience it when they don't want to.

And no, rampant perma-death PKing shouldn't be allowed. Consensual duels to the death, though, are another matter.

No, car service manuals and the XBox guide are exactly the same thing.

Those car service manuals tell you how to disassemble your car piece by piece and see exactly how it works. The XBox guide does exactly the same thing. What you choose to do with it is your business.

Will this guide help people get more utility out of their XBox (including, but not limited to Linux)? Yes. Will it help them to play pirated games? Unfortunately, yes.

Chemistry books describe violent reactions among chemicals. Could this information be used for scientific research? Yes. Could it be used to build a bomb? Unfortunately, yes. Should chemistry books be banned? Answer that question and you've answered the XBox guide question.

Reverse-engineering is what brought you the IBM PC-compatible that you probably typed your post on. It'll be a sad day when people like you cause innovation like that to be illegal.

Yay perma death. I really want to put hours and hours into developing my character only to lose it forever...

Again, that's exactly the sort of attitude that got the first MEO killed. Perma-death would have been rare and not likely to happen without the player's consent. An optional quest, for example, where the outcome could be a spectacular reward for success and possibly death on failure. Maybe a special zone where a series of events or fights could lead to a permanent death. It all gets tied back into risk vs. reward. If you stayed close to home and took very few risks, you'd live forever. But what's the fun in that? There has to be a real sense of danger in order to feel the biggest sense of accomplishment. And you wouldn't be forced to take that risk either. If you're not comfortable with the risk, don't put yourself in that position in the first place. The point is that the option would be there for people who want it.

Just because an idea is radically different doesn't mean that it should be struck down right away. Developers and publishers need to keep an open mind when it comes to new ideas. Otherwise we'll just see copies of EQ and DAOC with better graphics.

All my thoughts about this game summed up into one sentence: I could care less.

MEO was originally supposed to be a very, very innovative game. Their designers were trying things that even people today are afraid to implement. Permanent death, elves being truly rare, and magical items being pretty much non-existent. That's the reason the game was scrapped. The businessmen at Sierra (whom I'm sure have no idea about what makes a good MMORPG) decided that the game wouldn't have mass market appeal since not everyone would be able to be a) an Elf, b) Aragorn, or c) Gandalf. Was this the right business decision? Who knows. All I know is that they canned the first mainstream MMORPG that really tried to break the mold.

It doesn't look like the new MEO is doing anything revolutionary. It seems like a watered-down mass market game where legendary heroes will be a dime a dozen. This just looks like an attempt to cash in on all of the Lord of the Rings hype.

Could the new MEO be everything the original tried to be and more? Sure. I desperately hope that I'm proven wrong. But I'm not holding my breath.

Hah, you said that, and I thought to myself, "Hmm, let me check my hotmail account, the one I use to sign up for spam magnet type things on the internet" and guess what, I got accepted too. But I have to send them my adress for a CD? lame.

Exactly! Get with the picture, SOE! I can't believe they're not able to read minds. Talk about pathetic.

The Linux client was promised shortly after the game's release, but I'm glad they haven't shrugged it off completely. Really impressed with Bioware's after-release support. Especially since it's not a pay-as-you-play MMORPG.

I had my own additction to EQ. I played it pretty much every day for nearly two years, but in the end, I really can't say that it's a good game. More than anything, the fun you have in a MMORPG depends on the people you end up playing it with. I was part of a great guild with some great people--they kept me hanging in there a lot more than the game itself did. I'm currently playing DAOC and am loving it because of the people.

One big problem with PnP is actually getting people together for a session. I was able to play a number of great NWN sessions with old high school friends who are on opposite ends of the country. I've also had a chance to meet lots of great people in the process too.

PnP can also take a long time. It's not uncommon for a battle to unfold over a few hours of play time. All the turns, the dice rolling, the calculations, and the double checking of rules takes its toll. I really liked the idea of being able to go through a DM'd NWN campaign session in one night.

They may have done many server-side fixes, but the fact still remains that they denied duping even existed for weeks. In a game that's driven by über rare/unique items, that's inexcusable. You can't just ignore a problem and expect it to go away. They also promised guild support from the very beginning. Then it was promised post-release. Then it was removed altogether. Warcraft III also touted guild support. It still isn't there. If they aren't able to implement relatively simple features like guilds, do they expect that they can jump head first into a full featured MMORPG?

I think you're right about the pay as you play scheme, though--it'll give them incentive to continue supporting the game. Let's hope that'll do the trick.This comment was edited on Oct 25, 23:06.

Blizzard's art team is the best there is -- I'm sure the game will look absolutely fantastic. But can Blizzard really support a MMORPG? Blizzard's been known for putting out excruciatingly slow patches. Take Diablo II, for example. Look at all the rampant hacking and duping that took place. Even when it was first taking place, Blizzard stood firm and told everyone that it was just impossible. They didn't listen to the thousands of posts on their own messageboard from people who'd seen duped items.

Did they eventually fix the problem? Not entirely. They just deleted all the duped items, attributed the problem to a "Battle.net glitch", and went on their merry way. To my knowledge there are still ways to dupe on Battle.net. And what about maphack? That's a problem that they've had ever since Starcraft. Simple solution -- don't send the client any packets they aren't supposed to see. 4 years after Starcraft, they still have the same problem in Warcraft III. I really don't think Blizzard is ready for a MMORPG.

That hardly puts it out of context. Take a look at your first sentence:

Why am I not surprised the nvidiots would jump on this thread slagging off ATI.

I don't see a smiley there. And a smiley hardly gives you the right to use "nvidiots" and still claim that you're not biased. Either admit that you're biased or try to be objective about it. You can't be both.

Whoa there. You do realize that majority of the Detonators out there are leaked beta drivers? nVidia rarely releases beta drivers for download on their page. Visit nVidia's driver download page and see which versions are/were available for download if you'd like to see for yourself. In fact, they only make drivers that are WHQL certified or pending WHQL certification available for download. nVidia's always had a track record of releasing good, stable, fast drivers. If you gave an interim driver a try, chances are that you downloaded it from guru3d.com, reactorcritical.com, 3dchipset.com or any of a number of tweaking pages.

On another note: nVidia's drivers are unified, which means that one driver works with all of their chipsets. It's also a good sign that the development process of their drivers is careful and well-planed. That's something ATI still hasn't been able to do.

Every damn one of them addresses some bug or fix to some game.

Actually, Nvidia's most recent drivers address performance increases and new features (like the new nView, the built-in refresh rate overrides, and the combined menu system in 40.xx). They've long since hammered out the vast majority of incompatibilities. And the few incompatibilities that were introduced were only present in beta drivers. If you don't want to experiment with them, stick to the WHQL drivers and you probably won't go wrong.

It was a good review, Sluggo -- thanks for heading here to clear those things up. I think a lot of us (myself included) aren't used to giving reviewers the benefit of the doubt anymore. I've seen the occasional rushed review put out by places like GameSpot, Adrenaline Vault, IGN, and even GameSpy. I know that there's a lot of pressure to be the first site to post a review as soon as the game hits shelves or your NDA expires, so finding that perfect review is a little hard these days.

Do Archer's abilities increase throughout the game? Yes. Archer can recover various intelligence items during a mission. The percentage of intelligence she collects will yield a mission ranking. If her ranking is high enough, Archer will become more proficient at certain skills. Only a very careful player will find every single item in the game! Cate may also earn awards based upon her overall performance in a mission.